PHP: Pick one or more random entries out of an array

Description

mixed array_rand ( array $input [, int $num_req ] )

array_rand() is rather useful when you want to pick one or more random entries out of an array.

Parameters

input: The input array.
num_req: Specifies how many entries you want to pick - if not specified, defaults to 1.

Return Values

If you are picking only one entry, array_rand() returns the key for a random entry. Otherwise, it returns an array of keys for the random entries. This is done so that you can pick random keys as well as values out of the array.

Examples

Example #1 array_rand() example


<?php

srand((float) microtime() * 10000000);

$input = array("Neo", "Morpheus", "Trinity", "Cypher", "Tank");

$rand_keys = array_rand($input, 2);

echo $input[$rand_keys[0]] . "\n";

echo $input[$rand_keys[1]] . "\n";

?>

Notes

Note: As of PHP 4.2.0, there is no need to seed the random number generator with srand() or mt_srand() as this is now done automatically.

array_rand

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Examples

Notes

See Also